Zeroes : My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane

by Lane, Randall (Author)

• ISBN13: 9781591843290
• ISBN10: 1591843294
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-29
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover

Summary

What Liar's Pokerwas to the 1980s, The Zeroesis to the first decade of the new century: an insider's memoir of a gilded era when Wall Street went insane-and took the rest of us down with it. Randall Lane never set out to become a Wall Street power broker. But during the decade he calls the Zeroes, he started a small magazine company that put him near the white-hot center of the biggest boom in history. Almost by accident, a man who drove a beat-up Subaru and lived in a rented walk-up became the go-to guy for big shots with nine-figure incomes. Lane's saga began with a simple idea: a glossy magazine exclusively for and about traders, which would treat them like rock stars and entice them to splurge on luxury goods. Trader Monthlywas an instant hit around the world. Wall Streeters loved the spotlight, and advertisers like Gulfstream, Maybach, and Bulgari loved the marketing opportunity. To accelerate the buzz, Lane's staff threw parties featuring celebrities, premium steaks, cigars, and top-shelf vodka. Nothing was too expensive or too outrageous. Private jets in Napa Valley. Casino nights in London. And $1,000-a- seat boxing matches in New York, where traders from Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns pounded each other in front of tuxedoed throngs. Before long, Wall Street's rich and powerful trusted Lane as a fellow insider- the guy who could turn an anonymous trader into a cover model and media darling. And the rest of the world sought him out as a way to tap into Wall Street's riches. As he emptied his bank account to help keep his little company afloat, he became a nexus for the absurd. Traders who turned 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina into multimillion-dollar windfalls. John McCain closing out the craps tables during an all-night gambling binge. Pop artist Peter Max hustling hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling traders paint-by-numbers portraits. Al Gore, John Travolta, Moby. Corrupt Caribbean rulers, the mobsters from Goodfellas, the pope. And a retired baseball star turned market guru named Lenny Dykstra, whose rise and fall was a great metaphor for the decade. All played roles in Lane's increasingly surreal world. When the crash of 2008 hit, Lane's company and life savings were destroyed along with the high-flying traders and dealmakers his magazines exalted. But Lane walked away with something more lasting: an incredible true story, told by a skilled writer and reporter who sat squarely in the middle of one of the critical periods in modern financial and cultural history. People will turn to The Zeroesfor many years to come, to find out what the era was reallylike.

Author Biography

Randall Lane is a journalist and entrepreneur. As CEO and editor-in-chief of Doubledown Media, he founded or relaunched six magazines, including Trader Monthly, Dealmaker, and Private Air. Before that, he cofounded P.O.V. magazine, which was Adweek's "Startup of the Year." A National Magazine Award finalist, he was written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Slate and is a former Washington bureau chief for Forbes. He is currently editor-at-large at The Daily Beast and lives in New York City with his wife and daughters.

Table of Contents

Prologue	p. 1
Fever: 2001-2006
See It, Make It, Spend It (2001-2004)	p. 9
Starmakers (2005)	p. 37
The Jealousy Machine (2005)	p. 59
Doubling Down (2005)	p. 83
Dealmaker (2006)	p. 106
Mania: 2006-2008
We Want Your Money (Late 2006-Mid-2007)	p. 137
The Blank Check (2007)	p. 161
Fight Night (Mid-2007-Late 2007)	p. 186
Nails (Late 2007-Early 2008)	p. 211
Maxed Out (Early 2008)	p. 239
Reckoning: 2008-2009
Leverage (Mid-2008)	p. 265
The Party's Over (Late 2008-Early 2009)	p. 296
See It, Spend It, End It (2009)	p. 329
Acknowledgments	p. 343
Index	p. 347
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.